I began with a comparison between Melbourne and Sydney, towns of 280,000
and 220,000 inhabitants respectively. The capital of South Australia,
Adelaide, with its 70,000, stands, of course, upon an entirely different
level; but it possesses, to an even greater degree than Sydney, all the
peculiar characteristics of a capital city. If any comparison can be made
between Adelaide and its sister capitals, it is with Melbourne rather
than with Sydney. Adelaide is a thoroughly modern town, with all the
merits and all the defects attaching to novelty. It does not possess the
spirit of enterprise to so adventurous a degree as Melbourne, but neither
does it approach to the languor of Sydney. In this respect it has
discovered a very happy middle course. There is certainly something very
provincial about the attitude of the town towards the rest of the world,
but this helps to make it the more distinctive, and conduces largely to
its progress. It 'goes without saying' that there cannot be the same
number of large buildings as in the larger cities, that their proportions
cannot be so large, that there cannot be the same facilities for business
or for pleasure. But the emulation produced by the achievements of its
big neighbours has resulted in making Adelaide a far more advanced town
for its size than either of them. Proportionately to population,
everything in Adelaide ought theoretically to be on a fourth scale of its
like in Melbourne. As a matter of fact, most things are on more than
half-scale, many on a two-thirds, and a few things, such as the Botanic
Garden, the Exchange, the Banks of South Australia and Adelaide, are
unsurpassed.
For its size, I consider Adelaide the beet-built town I know, and
certainly it is the best laid out and one of the prettiest and most
conveniently situated. It nestles, so to speak, at the foot of a range of
high hills on a plain, which extends seven miles in length to the
seashore. The approach by rail from either Port Adelaide or Glenelg is
uninteresting, but directly you get out at the station the first
impression is pleasing. The streets are broad and laid out in rectangular
blocks as in Melbourne, and the white stone used for most of the
buildings makes the town look particularly bright and lively, showing off
the bustle and traffic to advantage. In the background are the hills,
while on one side is the suburb of North Adelaide, on an incline divided
from the city by a broad sheet of artificial water, running in the bed of
the river Torrens through a half-mile deep belt of 'park-lands,' which
encircle the square mile forming the city proper, and separate it from
the suburbs.
The conception of this belt of verdure, on which none but public
buildings may be erected, dividing the working part of the town from the
residential part, has always seemed to me a masterpiece of wisdom in city
planning, and hardly less admirable are the five open reserves inside the
city which serve as its lungs. Ultimately the city proper will probably
be almost entirely reserved for business purposes. Already very few
people live within the belts who can help it, although high prices are
given for sites for residences on each of the four terraces fronting the
belts. Except that Adelaide is perfectly flat, while Melbourne is built
on two sides of a valley, Adelaide may not inaptly be described in the
words of a visitor who was returning to England by the Peninsular and
Oriental route, as 'a smaller but better Melbourne.' The style of
architecture is not quite so florid, but the extreme squatness of the
buildings is far more noticeable here. It is no merely that the buildings
are actually lower, but the look lower from being built on the flat.
Of the public buildings, the finest is the Post Office, which, though it
wants an extra story to make it dignified, is, in my opinion, preferable
to either the Melbourne or Sydney Post Offices. The new Institute, the
Anglican Cathedral, which is lofty, the Town Hall, the Supreme Court, the
Banks of South Australia, of Adelaide, and the English and Scottish Bank,
and the new vice-regal residence on the hills, are all fine buildings,
which would attract favourable notice in Melbourne or Sydney. Nominally
there are three theatres, practically only one, but that is undoubtedly
the prettiest and best in Australia. But the pride of Adelaide is its
Botanic Garden, which, though unpromisingly situated on a perfectly
level spot, with no water at hand, has been transformed, by means of
artificial water and artificial hillocks, into the prettiest garden in
the world The area is only forty acres, but every inch has been turned
to the utmost advantage, and this is really a garden, while the Sydney
Gardens--mark the plural--are more park-like, and those of Melbourne can
hardly be called gardens, in the strict sense of the word.
The drainage is defective, but the water-supply good. There is still a
great deal to be done to the footpaths, and until quite recently the
municipal arrangements were in every respect almost as bad as those of
Sydney. But an able, energetic, and liberal mayor, Mr. E. T. Smith, in
the course of two years so stirred up the citizens that pavements have
been laid down, additional gas-lights provided, the Torrens artificial
lake constructed, the squares and park-lands transformed from untidy
wildernesses into handsome oases, and the general aspect of the city
entirely transformed. I do not know that I ever saw so much done entirely
at the initiative and by the energy and persistence of a single man.
Of the shops there is not much to be said. They are not at all up to the
average of most of the institutions of the town, with the one exception
of those of the jewellers and silversmiths, the work in which is original
and artistic, throwing altogether into the shade similar shops in
Melbourne and Sydney. The cabs are all waggonettes, similar to those used
in Melbourne, but drawn by two horses instead of one. Adelaide abhors
hansoms. They exist, but are never used by respectable people, who have
come to look upon them as unholy in themselves. The tramway system is the
most complete in Australia. All the trams are drawn by horses; to such of
the suburbs as are too thinly populated to have trams large waggonettes
for the most part run in lieu of omnibuses. Adelaide is the only
Australian town in which the American system of buying land, and making a
railway to bring population to it, has been carried out. The idea was
first tried with tramways, the writer having taken some part in
originating and promoting it. Of the hotels of Adelaide, the best is the
York. It is better than the best, in Sydney, but inferior to the best two
in Melbourne.
Owing to the excellent plan on which the city is laid out, it is
surrounded on every side by suburbs at the short distance of half a mile,
connected by horse-tramways. Beyond these, however, there is the
flourishing watering-place of Glenelg at a distance of only seven miles
by train; and now that the railway has been carried into the hills, it
will not be long before large suburbs grow up in them. Wealth in South
Australia is more equally divided than in the sister Colonies. Hence
there are only a few large mansions, but comfortable six to ten-roomed
cottages abound.